The Clayton County Board of Commissioners held a work session on April 14, 2026, at 5:30 PM, adjourning at approximately 6:00 PM. The meeting covered four agenda items: an update from the Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance, a transition to a new benefits enrollment system, the fiscal year 2027 budget presentation schedule, and a policy framework for utilizing county lobbyists.
Good afternoon, everyone. The Clayson County Board of Commissioners meeting it's now the work session is now called to order. The date is April 14th, 2026, and the time is 5 30 p.m. Um, board members, at this time, are there any preliminary items from the from the next BLC meeting that you'd like to discuss right now? No, not for me. You know, okay. All right. All right. Seeing none, we will move on. Um second is a request. Um, I mean, I'm sorry, first is Aerotropolis Update from CEO Shannon James. Mr. James, will you please come forward? And I can't wait to hear from you today. How are you doing? Awesome, awesome, awesome. All right, good evening or afternoon, Madam Chair, Council, Commissioners. Okay. Uh not sure if I should jump right in. I see uh Commissioner Hambrick making our way. Hello, Commissioner Allen. Uh not sure if I've got about 15 minutes. Is that fair? Yeah, go you know you've got time. Okay, I just I just want to make sure I stay on target. You get too long. Because I can. You know I can. Um excellent. So I'm excited uh to be here with you guys this afternoon, Commissioner Hambrick. Good evening, afternoon. Uh looking forward to this presentation. Lots of activity happening with the Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance, and I think I'm gonna fill you guys up this afternoon, specifically in Clayton County. And so today, what we're gonna do is uh really just do a high-level revisit of who we are, what we're doing, our team. Uh we'll spend a lot of time really on Blueprint 2.0, which we are very thankful for the Board of Commissioners for supporting us in financially, uh, which gave us a really unique experience to really deep dive from a data perspective on key sites and assets within the county to focus on and support to activate, which we have been active, and you'll hear here soon. And then the future, right? What we're working on in regards to future planning activity, which is a lot of. Uh here's our team. Uh we're small but mighty. Our vice president Brian Dorellis, who leads all of our collective work, our economic workforce and community development, including our projects, uh unique projects and state projects. Valencia White, uh, who really runs our office uh right here in Clayton County, which I'll speak to later. And then last but not least, Shantae Foster, our marketing and communications manager, who everything that you see feel and touch. It's literally Shantae Foster, uh, who is uh East Point native. What is the Aerotropolis Atlanta Alliance? And so it's important that we kind of set the stage of kind of who we are. We're 12 years old. Um think most of us have kids, even grandkids, and uh we're 12, right? We're growing up, we're getting there for sure, and I think that's indicative of our work. Our mission is to serve as a catalyst, uh, key word catalyst for regional economic competitive competitiveness for the area surrounding Hartsfield, Jackson. Uh, exclusively in South Fulton and Clayton County, 15 jurisdictions.